Christian marriage; the counsel of experience and the commandment of the Lord

The apostle proceeds by answering a question in connection with
the subject he had been treating -- the will of God with regard to
the relationship between man and woman. They do well who remain
outside this relationship in order to walk with the Lord according
to the Spirit, and not to yield in anything to their nature. God
had instituted marriage -- woe to him who should speak ill of it!
but sin has come in, and all that is of nature, of the creature, is
marred. God has introduced a power altogether above and outside
nature -- that of the Spirit. To walk according to that power is
the best thing; it is to walk outside the sphere in which sin acts.
But it is rare; and positive sins are for the most part the effect
of standing apart from that which God has ordained according to
nature. In general then for this reason, every man should have his
own wife: and the union once formed, he had no longer power over
himself. As to the body, the husband belonged to his wife, the wife
to her husband. If, by mutual consent, they separated for awhile
that they might give themselves to prayer and to spiritual
exercises, the bond was to be immediately acknowledged again, lest
the heart, not governing itself, should give Satan occasion to come
in and distress the soul, and destroy its confidence in God and in
His love -- lest he should tempt by distressing doubts (it is for,
not by incontinency) a heart that aimed at too much, and failed in
it.

This permission, however, and this direction which recommended
Christians to marry, was not a commandment from the Lord, given by
inspiration, but the fruit of the apostle's experience -- an
experience to which the presence of the Holy Ghost was not
wanting.* He would rather that every one were like himself; but
every one had, in this respect, his gift from God. To the unmarried
and the widows, it is good, he says, to abide as he himself was;
but if they could not subdue their nature and remain in calm
purity, it was better to marry. Unsubduedness of desire was more
hurtful than the bond of marriage. But as to marriage itself, there
was no longer room for the counsel of experience, the commandment
of the Lord was positive. The woman was not to separate from the
man, nor the man from the woman; and if they separated, the bond
was not broken; they must remain unmarried or else be reconciled.

{*Note here, we have formally distinguished, what infidels of
the modern school have sought to confound, spiritual thoughts as a
man, and inspiration. The apostle gives his thoughts and judgment
as a spiritual man, his mind animated and guided by the Spirit, and
contrasts it with inspiration and what the Lord said. How
wonderfully the Lord has provided in scripture for everything!
Compare verse 25.}

The unbelieving husband or wife

But there was a case more complicated, when the man was
converted and the wife unconverted, or vice versa. According to the
law a man who had married a woman of the Gentiles (and was
consequently profane and unclean) defiled himself, and was
compelled to send her away; and their children had no right to
Jewish privileges; they were rejected as unclean (see Ezra 10:
3). But under grace it was quite the contrary. The converted
husband sanctified the wife, and vice versa, and their children
were reckoned clean before God; they had part in the ecclesiastical
rights of their parent. This is the sense of the word "holy," in
connection with the question of order and of outward relationship
towards God, which was suggested by the obligation under the law to
send away wife and children in a similar case. Thus the believer
was not to send away his wife, nor to forsake an unbelieving
husband. If the unbeliever forsook the believer definitively, the
latter (man or woman) was free -- "let him depart." The brother was
no longer bound to consider the one who had forsaken him as his
wife, nor the sister the man who had forsook her as her
husband. But they were called to peace, and not to seek this
separation, for how did the believer know if he should not be the
means of the unbeliever's conversion? For we are under
grace. Moreover every one was to walk as God had distributed to
him.

The Christian's occupation and position in this world

As regarded occupations and positions in this world, the general
rule was that every one should continue in the state wherein he was
called; but it must be "with God" -- doing nothing that would not
be to His glory. If the state was in itself of a nature contrary to
His will, it was sin; clearly he could not remain in it with
God. But the general rule was to remain and glorify God in it.

The apostle's judgment as to those unmarried

The apostle had spoken of marriage, of the unmarried and of
widows; he had been questioned also with respect to those who had
never entered into any relationship with woman. On this point he
had no commandment from the Lord. He could only give his judgment
as one who had received mercy of the Lord to be faithful. It was
good to remain in that condition, seeing what the world was and the
difficulties of a christian life. If they were bound to a wife,
let them not seek to be loosed. If free, they would do well to
remain so. Thus if they married, they did well; not marrying, they
did better. He who had not known a woman did not sin if he married,
but he should have trouble after the flesh in his life here
below. (It will be observed, that it is not the daughter of a
Christian that is here spoken of, but his own personal condition.)
If he stood firm, and had power over his own will, it was the
better way; if he married, he still did well; if he did not marry,
it was better. It was the same with a woman; and if the apostle
said that according to his judgment it was better, he had the
Spirit of God. His experience -- if he had no commandment -- had
not been gained without the Spirit, but it was that of a man who
could say (if any one had a right to say it) that he had the Spirit
of God.

Serving the Lord without distraction

Moreover the time was short: the married were to be as having no
wives; buyers, as having no possession; they who used the world,
not using it as though it were theirs. Only the apostle would have
them without carefulness or distraction, that they might serve the
Lord. If by reckoning themselves dead to nature this effect was not
produced, they gained nothing, they lost by it. When married they
were pre-occupied with things below, in order to please their wives
and to provide for their children. But they enjoyed a repose of
mind, in which nature did not claim her rights with a will that
they had failed to silence, and holiness of walk and of heart was
maintained. If the will of nature was subjugated and silenced,
they served the Lord without distraction, they lived according to
the Spirit and not according to nature, even in those things which
God had ordained as good with respect to nature.

Directions to slaves: exceptions to the general rule to continue
in the state wherein we are called

As to the slave, he might console himself as being the Lord's
free-man; but (seeing the difficulty of reconciling the will of a
pagan or even an unspiritual master with the will of God) if he
could be made free, he should embrace the opportunity.

A new energy above natrure; inspiration and the apostle's own
spiritual exerience accurately distinguished

Two things strike us here in passing: the holiness which all
these directions breathe with regard to that which touches so
closely the desires of the flesh. The institutions of God, formed
for man when innocent, are maintained in all their integrity, in
all their authority, a safeguard now against the sin to which man
is incited by his flesh. The Spirit introduces a new energy above
nature, which in no wise weakens the authority of the institution.
If any one can live above nature in order to serve the Lord in
freedom, it is a gift of God -- a grace which he does well to
profit by. A second very important principle flows from this
chapter. The apostle distinguishes accurately between that which he
has by inspiration, and his own spiritual experience -- that which
the Spirit gave him in connection with the exercises of his
individual life -- spiritual wisdom, however exalted it might
be. On certain points he had no commandment from the Lord. He gave
the conclusion at which he had arrived, through the help of the
Spirit of God, in a life of remarkable faithfulness, and aided by
the Spirit whom he but little grieved. But it was not a
commandment of the Lord. On other points that which he did not
except in this manner was to be received as the commandment of the
Lord (compare 1 Corinthians 14: 37). That is to say, he affirms the
inspiration, properly so called, of his writings -- they were to be
received as emanating from the Lord Himself -- distinguishing this
inspiration from his own spiritual competency, a principle of all
importance.